Suggestions  to  Pastors  for 

Sermons  on 
David  Livingstone 

By  Cornelius  H.  Patton 


“To  understand  a  drama  requires  the  same  mental  operation  as  to 
understand  an  existence,  a  biography,  a  man.  It  is  a  putting  back 
of  the  bird  into  the  egg,  of  the  plant  into  the  seed,  a  reconstitution  of 
the  whole  genesis  of  the  being  in  question.”  This  remark  of  Amiel 
will  serve  to  remind  us  of  the  seriousness  of  our  task  in  placing  be¬ 
fore  our  people  this  wonderful  life  of  Livingstone.  Ministers  some¬ 
times  think  it  is  easy  to  prepare  biographical  sermons.  If  what  they 
have  in  mind  is  simply  to  gather  chronological  material  or  to  tell  a 
story,  then  it  is  easy  enough.  But  that  is  not  biography.  Biography 
is  interpretation,  and  Amiel  is  right  in  classing  interpretation  among 
the  arts. 

The  minister  must  first  discover  the  secret  of  Livingstone’s  life 
and  influence.  It  is  not  enough  to  say  he  followed  Christ.  Everybody 
knows  that.  But  how  did  he  follow  Christ?  Why  did  Christ  have  an 
effect  upon  him  so  different  from  that  experienced  by  the  majority  of 
Chrstians  who  will  listen  to  your  sermon?  In  the  last'  analysis  we 
must  understand  Christ  if  we  would  understand  this  great  servant 
of  his.  Our  first  preparation  then  should  be  spiritual.  Let  Christ 
interpret  to  us  this  life  which  he  himself  inspired. 

I  am  a  great  believer  in  a  minister  filling  himself  full  of  a  subject 
before  he  begins  to  put  pen  on  paper.  It  is  not  merely  a  matter  of 
gathering  an  abundance  of  material,  but  fully  *as  much  of  becoming- 
possessed  by  the  material — having  the  subject  own  us,  mind  and  soul. 
This  is  preeminently  true  of  biographical  discourses.  If  we  are  to 
preach  on  Paul,  we  must  live  with  Paul.  If  we  are  to  preach  on  Liv* 
ingstone,  we  must  live  with  Livingstone.  We  must  grow  up  with  him 
at  Blantyre  and  go  with  him  to  Africa. 

And  what  a  life  it  is  to  live  with!  This  man  takes  the  subject 


of  foreign  missions  into  an  entirely  different  sphere.  We  should  have 
“the  chance  of  our  lives”  in  this  Livingstone  centenary.  Here  we  can 
present  a  man  of  absolutely  compelling  interest,  one  whose  career 
combines  qualities,  ideas,  experiences,  rarely  found  together,  and  all 
attractive  in  a  high  degree.  This  man  can  commend  missions  as  can 
no  other  in  modern  times.  He  was  an  explorer,  and  every  one  loves 
an  explorer,  especially  men  and  boys.  He  was  a  scientist,  and  that  is 
very  popular  just  now.  He  was  a  doctor,  and  if  we  follow  the  gen¬ 
eral  opinion,  that  is  one  of  the  most  useful  vocations  a  man  can  fol¬ 
low.  The  most  rabid  objector  to  foreign  missions  believes  in  medical 
missionaries.  Above  all,  Livingstone  was  a  man — a  man  to  admire,  a 
man  to  believe  in,  a  man  to  hold  up  before  our  boys  as  an  ideal.  Ask 
Stanley  about  that.  His  tribute  to  Livingstone  and  his  account  of 
how  .Livingstone  drew  out  his  admiration,  influenced  his  character, 
and  led  him  to  Christ  is  a  tribute  which  the  world  cannot  refuse.  A 
man,  a  Christian  man,  and — let  us  never  overlook  this — a  missionary. 

Livingstone  has  gripped  the  world  strangely.  There  is  nothing 
quite  like  it  in  modern  life.  A  matter-of-fact  business  man  was  speak¬ 
ing  about  this  the  other  day.  He  told  how  he  was  wandering  about 
Westminster  Abbey,  and  how  disappointed  he  was  to  find  that  no 
thrill  came  to  him  as  he  passed  from  tomb  to  tomb.  Great  names — 
kings,  queens,  poets,  philosophers,  statesmen — on  every  side,  yet  no 
more  impression  than  as  if  he  were  turning  the  pages  of  an  encyclo¬ 
pedia.  But  as  he  sauntered  through  the  nave  his  eyes  fell  upon  the 
slab  bearing  the  famous  inscription: 

Brought  by  faithful  hands 
over  land  and  sea 

Here  Rests 
David  Livingstone 

Missionary,  Traveler,  Philanthropist 

No  need  of  giving  the  rest.  How  many  of  us  have  stood  chained  to 
that  spot,  reading  every  word  with  moist  eyes,  and  throbbing  hearts ! 
It  was  so  with  this  plain  man.  He  said  it  was  the  only  thing  in  the 
Abbey  which  moved  him,  and  this  moved  him  profoundly.  He  had 
never  read  the  life  of  Livingstone.  He  knew  very  little  of  his  career. 
He  was  not  in  sympathy  with  missions.  Yet  he  stood  awestruck 

at  the  tomb  of  David  Livingstone ! 

« 

That  reveals  the  power  of  the  man  we  are  to  interpret  on  the 
one  hundredth  anniversary  of  his  birthday.  There  is  opportunity  in 
this  occasion.  We  may  convert  men  to  Christ;  we  certainly  can  con¬ 
vert  men  to  Christ’s  program  for  the  Church. 

To  be  explicit,  we  ought  to  read  the  life  of  Livingstone.  Silves¬ 
ter  Horne  will  give  us  a  good  start  in  his  delightful  little  volume, 


David  Livingstone,  but  the  minister  needs  more.  He  really  ought  to 
read  W.  G.  Blaikie's  The  Life  of  David  Livingstone,  and  then  if  he 
will  take  a  dip  into  the  Journals  there  will  be  no  doubt  about  the 
abundance  of  material  or  as  to  his  zest  for  the  task.  I  had  the  rare 
experience  of  reading  Blaikie  in  the  heart  of  Africa  night  after  night 
in  my  tent,  while  visiting  mission  stations  in  the  valley  of  the  Kwanza, 
where  Livingstone  made  his  first  great  journey,  and  where  he  had 
twenty-seven  attacks  of  African  fever.  Would  that  every  minister 
could  experience  the  thrill  of  that  great  biography  when  read  on  one 
of  Livingstone’s  trails !  It  made  this  lonely  herald  of  the  cross  seem 
doubly  great.  And  the  cost  of  it  all — the  sickness,  the  pain,  the 
hunger,  the  danger — how  can  one  understand  these  things  when  sit¬ 
ting  in  his  easy  chair  at  home? 

* 

The  life  should  be  made  vivid  to  our  hearers.  There  should  be  at 
least  one  good  story,  some  striking  incident,  like  his  crossing  the 
Loangwa  River,  where  his  faith  and  courage  were  sorely  tried — per¬ 
haps  the  most  characteristic  experience  of  his  life.  This  was  where 
Livingstone  recalled  the  last  command  of  Christ,  with  the  great  prom¬ 
ise,  and  wrote  in  his  journal:  “It  is  the  word  of  a  Gentleman  of  the 
most  sacred  and  strictest  honor,  and  there’s  an  end  on’t.” 

The  sufferings  should  be  brought  out,  but  not  dwelt  upon.  For 
this,  the  closing  scenes  of  his  life  are  the  best — those  wonderful  last 
entries  in  his  diary — is  there  anything  like  it  in  literature? 

As  for  the  scientific  achievements  and  the  explorations,  they  can 
easily  be  summarized  in  a  paragraph. 

The  Stanley  episode  should,  of  course,  be  alluded  to,  on  account 
of  its  American  connection,  and  in  order  to  quote  what  Stanley  has 
said. 

The  Westminster  inscription,  I  think,  should  be  given  in  full, 
certainly  these  lines: 


“All  I  can  say  in  my  solitude  is, 

May  Heaven’s  rich  blessing  come  down 
On  every  one,  American,  English,  or  Turk, 
Who  will  help  to  heal 
This  open  sore  of  the  world.” 


Undoubtedly  the  most  remarkable  thing  about  Livingstone  was 
the  impression  he  made  upon  the  natives.  To  bring  this  out,  the 
preacher  will  naturally  tell  the  pathetic  incident  of  the  faithful  men 
who  carried  the  body  from  the  interior  of  Africa  to  the  coast,  the  like 
of  which  is  not  to  be  found  in  the  annals  of  heroism  and  devotion. 


To  set  before  our  people  this  remarkable  man,  and  to  draw  the 
appropriate  lessons,  will  be  a  notable  thing  in  any  church.  But  we 
must  not  stop  there.  We  must  connect  our  narrative  with  the  needs 
of  Africa  to-day.  Eighty  million  pagans,  and  possibly  not  more  than 
four  millions  of  them  brought  under  the  gospel.  Africa  is  still  the 
Dark  Continent.  The  Unfinished  Task  is  of  colossal  proportions.  Liv¬ 
ingstone  opened  up  this  vast  area  ;  he  pointed  the  way.  It  is  for  us 
to  gird  ourselves  with  his  faith  and  heroism  as  we  follow  on  till  the 
continent  is  redeemed.  The  last  suggestion  is  that  the  preacher 
should  acquaint  himself  with  the  present-day  problems  and  needs  of 
Africa,  and  in  case  the  Board  of  his  church  is  engaged  in  work  in  this 
continent  he  should  not  lose  the  opportunity  to  mention  the  work  and 
to  impress  upon  the  people  their  own  relation  to  it.  The  test  of  these 
sermons,  brethren,  will  be,  not  the  complimentary  words  which  may 
be  said  about  the  preacher  (God  forbid!),  or  even  about  Living¬ 
stone  himself,  not  even  the  thrills  which  may  be  produced ;  the  test 
will  be  whether  the  people  go  out  of  the  church  saying: 

What  Can  I  Do  to  Help  Save  Africa? 


Suggested  Books  for  Reading,  Reference  and  Study 

Horne,  C.  Silvester.  David  Livingstone.  248  pages.  Lully  illustrated. 

Cloth,  50  cents,  net ;  postage,  8  cents  extra. 

• 

A  new  popular  life  of  Livingstone,  published  especially  for  this  Centenary.  It  is  an 
absorbing  book  written  with  energy,  spirit  and  power,  by  the  well-known  Congregational 
minister  and  Member  of  Parliament. 


Blaikie,  W.  Garden.  The  Life  of  David  Livingstone.  New  Edition. 
424  pages.  50  cents,  net ;  postage,  8  cents  extra. 

This  standard  reference  book  reveals  the  character  of  Livingstone,  the  strength  of  his 
affections,  the  depth  and  purity  of  his  devotion,  and  the  intensity  of  his  aspirations  as  a 
Christian  missionary.  Extensive,  but  exceedingly  stimulating,  because  it  contains  many  quota¬ 
tions  from  Mr.  Livingstone’s  journals. 


Naylor,  Wilson  S.  Daybreak  in  the  Dark  Continent.  Livingstone 
Edition.  315  pages.  Illustrated.  Cloth,  50  cents;  paper,  35 
cents ;  postage,  8  cents  extra. 

The  best  brief,  yet  comprehensive  survey  of  conditions  in  Africa.  It  has  been  revised  and 
republished  with  an  entirely  new  chapter  on  Livingstone.  New  photographs  are  used  for 

illustrations. 


Prayer-Meeting  Outlines 


Livingstone’s  Life 
of  Prayer 


By  Robert  E.  Speer 


The  whole  world  knows  that  Living¬ 
stone  ended  his  life  in  prayer.  When  his 
men  found  him  dead  in  the  hut  at  Ilala, 
where  they  had  brought  him  on  the  last 
of  all  his  journeys,  he  was  kneeling  by 
his  bedside  in  prayer.  That  worn  figure  at 
prayer  is  both  illustration  and  appeal  in 
the  matter  of  the  relation  of  prayer  and 
missions.  “How  thankful  I  am,”  says 
Major  Mahan,  “that  Livingstone  was  found 
on  his  knees !  Does  it  not  tell  us  whence 
came  the  power  for  his  self-denial,  his 
courage,  his  endurance?” 

And  as  his  life  ended,  so  it  began.  While 
a  student  at  the  missionary  training  school 
at  Ongar  he  was  not  a  great  success  as  a 
preacher.  One  of  his  fellow  students 
writes : 

“One  part  of  our  duties  was  to  prepare 
sermons,  which  were  submitted  to  Mr. 
Cecil,  and,  when  corrected,  were  committed 
to  memory,  and  then  repeated  to  our  vil¬ 
lage  congregations.  Livingstone  prepared 
one,  and  one  Sunday  the  minister  of  Stan¬ 
ford  Rivers,  where  the  celebrated  Isaac 
Taylor  resided,  having  fallen  sick  after  the 
morning  service,  Livingstone  was  sent  for 
to  preach  in  the  evening.  He  took  his  text, 
read  it  out  very  deliberately,  and  then — 
then — his  sermon  had  fled!  Midnight  dark¬ 


ness  came  upon  him,  and  he  abruptly  said  : 
‘Friends,  I  have  forgotten  all  I  had  to  say,’ 
and  hurrying  out  of  the  pulpit,  he  left  the 
chapel.” 

But  he  knew  how  to  talk  with  God. 
“Each  student  of  Ongar."  says  the  same 
friend  who  wrote  about  his  preaching,  “had 
also  to  conduct  family  worship  in  rotation. 
I  was  much  impressed  by  the  fact  that 
Livingstone  never  prayed  without  the  peti¬ 
tion  that  we  might  imitate  Christ  in  all  his 
imitable  perfections.” 

This  was  his  constant  prayer.  At  the 
age  of  twenty-six  he  writes  to  his  sister  : 

* 

“Let  us  seek — and  with  the  conviction 
that  we  cannot  do  without  it — that  all 
selfishness  be  extirpated,  pride  banished, 
unbelief  driven  from  the  mind,  every  idol 
dethroned,  and  everything  hostile  to  holi¬ 
ness  and  opposed  to  the  divine  will  cruci¬ 
fied ;  that  ‘holiness  to  the  Lord’  may  be 
engraven  on  the  heart,  and  evermore  char¬ 
acterize  our  whole  conduct.  This  is  what 
we  ought  to  strive  after;  this  is  the  way 
to  be  happy;  this  is  what  our  Savior  loves 
— entire  surrender  of  the  heart.  May  he 
enable  us  by  his  Spirit  to  persevere  till  we 
attain  it!  All  comes  from  him,  the  dispo¬ 
sition  to  ask  as  well  as  the  blessing  itself. 


“I  hope  you  improve  the  talents  com¬ 
mitted  to  you  whenever  there  is  an  oppor¬ 
tunity.  You  have  a  class  with  whom  you 
have  some  influence.  It  requires  prudence 
in  the  way  of  managing  it;  seek  wisdom 
from  above  to  direct  you ;  persevere — 
don’t  be  content  with  once  or  twice  recom¬ 
mending  the  Savior  to  them — again  and 
again,  in  as  kind  a  manner  as  possible, 
familiarly,  individually,  and  privately,  ex¬ 
hibit  to  them  the  fountain  of  happiness 
and  joy,  never  forgetting  to  implore  di¬ 
vine  energy  to  accompany  your  endeavors, 
and  you  need  not  fear  that  your  labor  will 
be  unfruitful.  If  you  have  the  willing 
mind,  that  is  accepted;  nothing  else  is  ac¬ 
cepted  if  that  be  wanting.  God  desires 
that.  He  can  do  all  the  rest.” 

After  he  reached  Africa,  he  was  always 
anxious  to  have  people  at  home  praying 
for  him.  “You  must  remember  me  in  your 
prayers,”  he  wrote  to  Dr.  Bennett,  “that 
more  of  the  spirit  of  Christ  may  be  im¬ 
parted  to  me.”  He  has  to  go  forward  for 
a  year  away  from  his  wife.  “I  intend 
(D.  V.)  to  go  next  year  and  remain  a 
twelve-month.  My^/ife,  poor  soul — I  pity 
her! — propose ^  to  let  me  go  for  that  time 
while  she  remained  at  Kolobeng.  You 
will  pray  for  us  both  during  that  period.” 

Again  he  writes : 

“But  for  the  belief  that  the  Holy  Spirit 
works,  and  will  work  for  us,  I  should  give 
up  in  despair.  Remember  us  in  your 
prayers,  that  we  grow  not  weary  in  well¬ 
doing.” 

And  lie  practised  prayer  at  the  same 
time  that  he  besought  it.  On  July  10,  1845, 
he  writes  in  his  journal: 

“Entered  new  house.  A  great  mercy. 
Hope  it  may  be  more  a  house  of  prayer 
than  any  we  have  yet  inhabited.”  And  his 
journals  are  full  of  prayers,  some  brief 
and  some  extended.  “O,  divine  love,  I  have 
not  loved  thee  strongly,  deeply,  warmly 
enough.”  The  cool,  self-contained  Scotch¬ 
man  poured  out  his  heart  at  least  to  God. 

Here  is  a  long  prayer  in  his  journal  of 
January  14,  1856: 

“At  the  confluence  of  the  Loangwa  and 
Zambezi.  Thank  God  for  his  great  mer¬ 


cies  thus  far.  How  soon  I  may  be  called 
to  stand  before  him,  my  righteous  judge, 
I  know  not.  All  hearts  are  in  his  hands, 
and  merciful  and  gracious  is  the  Lord  our 
God.  O  Jesus,  grant  me  resignation  to 
thy  will,  and  entire  reliance  on  thy  power* 
ful  hand.  On  thy  word  alone  I  lean.  But 
wilt  thou  permit  me  to  plead  for  Africa? 
The  cause  is  thine.  What  an  impulse  will 
be  given  to  the  idea  that  Africa  is  not  open 
if  I  perish  now!  See,  O  Lord,  how  the 
heathen  rise  up  against  me,  as  they  did  to 
thy  Son.  I  commit  my  way  unto  thee. 
I  trust  also*  in  thee  that  thou  wilt  direct 
my  steps.  Thou  givest  wisdom  liberally 
to  all  who  ask  thee — give  it  to  me,  my 
Father.  My  family  is  thine.  They  are  in 
the  best  hands.  Oh !  be  gracious,  and  all 
our  sins  do  thou  blot  out. 

A  guilty,  weak,  and  helpless  worm, 

On  thy  kind  arms  I  fall. 

Leave  me  not,  forsake  me  not.  I  cas-t 
myself  and  all  my  cares  down  at  thy  feet. 
Thou  knowest  all  I  need,  for  time  and  for 
eternity. 

“It  seems  a  pity  that  the  important  facts 
about  the  two  healthy  longitudinal  ridges 
should  not  become  known  in  Christendom. 
Thy  will  be  done !  .  .  They  will  not 

furnish  us  with  more  canoes  than  two.  I 
leave  my  cause  and  all  my  concerns  in  the 
hands  of  God,  my  gracious  Savior,  the 
Friend  of  sinners. 

“ Evening .  Felt  much  turmoil  of  spirit 
in  view  of  having  all  my  plans  for  the  wel¬ 
fare  of  this  great  region  and  teeming  popu¬ 
lation  knocked  on  the  head  by  savages  to¬ 
morrow.  But  I  read  that  Jesus  came  and 
said :  'All  power  is  given  unto  me  in 
heaven  and  in  earth.  Go  ye,  therefore, 
and  teach  all  nations — and  lo,  I  am  with 
you  alway,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world.’ 
It  is  the  word  of  a  Gentleman  of  the 
most  sacred  and  strictest  honor,  and  there 
is  an  end  on’t.  I  will  not  cross  furtively 
by  night,  as  I  intended.  It  would  appear 
as  flight,  and  should  such  a  man  as  I  flee? 
Nay,  verily,  I  shall  take  observations  for 
latitude  and  longitude  to-night,  though 
they  may  be  the  last.  1  feel  quite  calm 
now,  thank  God.” 


Nine  days  later  he  was  threatened  again. 
On  January  23  he  writes: 

“To  thee,  O  God,  we  look.  And,  oh! 
Thou  who  wast  the  man  of  sorrows  for 
the  sake  of  poor,  vile  sinners,  and  didst 
not  disdain  the  thief’s  petition,  remember 
me  and  thy  cause  in  Africa.  Soul  and 
body,  my  family  and  thy  cause,  I  commit 
all  to  thee.  Hear,  Lord,  for  Jesus’  sake.” 

He  was  accused  by  some  of  abandon¬ 
ing  the  missionary  cause  when  he  began 
his  exploration  and  some  spoke  of  him  as 
“secularized.”  But  would  that  all  of  us 
were  as  secularized  as  the  man  who  wrote 
thus  in  his  diary  of  March  6,  1859  : 

“Teaching  Makololo  Lord’s  Prayer  and 
Cieed.”  “Prayers  as  usual  at  9.30  a.  m. 
When  employed  in  active  travel  my  mind 
becomes  inactive  and  the  heart  cold  and 
dead,  but  after  remaining  some  time  quiet 
the  heart  revives,  and  I  become  more  spir¬ 
itually  minded.  This  is  a  mercy  which 
I  have  experienced  before,  and  when  I  see 
a  matter  to  be  duty  I  go  on,  regardless 
of  my  feelings.  I  do  trust  that  the  Lord 
is  with  me,  though  the  mind  is  engaged  in 
other  matters  than  the  spiritual.  I  want 
my  whole  life  to  be  out  and  out  for  the 
Divine  glory,  and  my  earnest  prayer  is  that 
God  may  accept  what  his  own  Spirit  must 
have  implanted — the  desire  to  glorify  him. 

I  have  been  more  than  usually  drawn 
out  in  earnest  prayer  of  late — for  the  ex¬ 
pedition — for  my  family — the  fear  lest 

- ’s  misrepresentation  may  injure  the 

cause  of  Christ — the  hope  that  I  may  be 
permitted  to  open  this  dark  land  to  the 
blessed  gospel.  I  have  cast  all  before  my 
God.  Good  Lord,  have  mercy  upon  me. 
Leave  me  not,  nor  forsake  me.  He  has 
guided  well  in  time  past.  I  commit  my  way 
to  him  for  the  future.  All  I  have  received 
has  come  from  him.  Will  he  be  pleased 
in  mercy  to  use  me  for  his  glory?  I  have 
prayed  for  this,  and  Jesus  himself  said, 
‘Ask,  and  ye  shall  receive,’  and  a  host  of 
statements  to  the  same  effect.  There  is  a 
great  deal  of  trifling  frivolousness  in  not 
trusting  in  God.  Not  trusting  in  him  who 
is  truth  itself — faithfulness — the  same  yes¬ 
terday,  to-day,  and  forever  !  It  is  presump¬ 
tion  not  to  trust  in  him  implicitly,  and  yet 


this  heart  is  sometimes  fearfully  guilty  of 
distrust.  I  am  ashamed  to  think  of  it. 
Ay,  but  he  must  put  the  trusting,  loving, 
childlike  spirit  in  by  his  grace.  O  Lord,  1 
am  thine,  truly  I  am  thine.  Take  me.  Do 
what  seemeth  good  in  thy  sight  with  me, 
and  give  me  complete  resignation  to  thy 
will  in  all  things.” 

Every  fresh  need  was  to  him  a  fresh  oc¬ 
casion  of  prayer,  and  toward  the  end  of 
his  life  he  seems  to  have  made  each  birth¬ 
day  an  occasion  of  some  special  prayer  of 
consecration.  On  his  fifty-ninth  birthday, 
March  19,  1872,  he  writes : 

“ Birthday . — My  Jesus,  my  King,  my  Life, 
my  All;  I  again  dedicate  my  whole  self 
to  thee.  Accept  me,  and  grant,  O  gracious 
Father,  that  ere  this  year  is  gone  I  may 
finish  my  task.  In  Jesus’  name  I  ask  it. 
Amen.  So  let  it  be. — David  Livingstone.” 

On  the  first  of  May,  just  one  year  pre¬ 
cisely  before  his  death,  he  finished  a  letter 
for  the  New  York  Herald,  and  asked  God’s 
blessing  on  it.  It  contained  the  memorable 
words  afterwards  inscribed  on  the  stone 
to  his  memory  in  Westminster  Abbey: 
“All  I  can  say  in^my  solitude  is,  may 
Heaven’s  rich  blessing  come  down  on  every 
one — American,  English,  Turk — who  will 
help  to  heal  this  open  sore  of  the  world.” 

As  Dr.  Blaikie,  his  biographer,  says : 
“Amid  the  universal  darkness  around  him, 
the  universal  ignorance  of  God  and  of  the 
grace  and  love  of  Jesus  Christ,  it  was 
hard  to  believe  that  Africa  should  ever 
be  won.  He  had  to  strengthen  his  faith 
amid  this  universal  desolation.  We  read 
in  his  journal: 

“13th  May. — He  will  keep  his  word — 
the  gracious  One,  full  of  grace  and  truth; 
no  doubt  of  it.  He  said:  ‘Him  that  com- 
eth  unto  me,  I  will  in  no  wise  cast  out’; 
and  ‘Whatsoever  ye  shall  ask  in  my  name, 

I  will  give  it.’  He  will  keep  his  word; 
then  I  can  come  and  humbly  present  my 
petition,  and  it  will  be  all  right.  Doubt  is 
here  inadmissible,  surely.” 

And  he  took  great  comfort  from  the 
prayers  which  he  asked  of  the  people  at 
home.  In  his  famous  paper  on  “Mission¬ 
ary  Sacrifices,”  he  wrote: 


“It  is  something  to  be  a  missionary. 
He  is  sometimes  inclined,  in  seasons  of 
despondency  and  trouble,  to  feel  as  if  for¬ 
gotten.  But  for  whom  do  more  prayers 
ascend? — prayers  from  the  secret  place, 
and  from  those  only  who  are  known  to 
God.  Mr.  Moffat  met  those  in  England 
who  had  made  his  mission  the  subject  of 
special  prayer  for  more  than  twenty  years, 
though  they  had  no  personal  knowledge  of 
the  missionary.  Through  the  long  fifteen 
years  of  no  success,  of  toil  and  sorrow, 
these  secret  ones  were  holding  up  his 
hands.  And  who  can  tell  how  often  his 
soul  may  have  been  refreshed  through 
their  intercessions?” 

And  having  lived  and  loved  in  a  long 
life  of  prayer,  he  died,  as  we  have  seen, 
in  the  act  of  prayer.  The  faithful  black 
men  had  brought  him  through  the  swamps 
and  rain  to  Chitambo’s  village,  in  Ilala, 
where  they  laid  him  under  the  eaves  of  a 
house  while  they  built  for  him  a  little  hut. 

“Then  they  laid  him  on  a  rough  bed 
in  the  hut,  where  he  spent  the  night.  Next 
day  he  lay  undisturbed.  He  asked  a  few 
wandering  questions  aj^out  the  country — 
especially  about  the  Luapula.  His  people 
'knew  that  the  end  could  not  be  far  off 


Nothing  occurred  to  attract  notice  during 
the  early  part  of  the  night,  but  at  four  in 
the  morning,  the  boy  who  lay  at  his  door, 
called  in  alarm  for  Susi,  fearing  that  their 
master  was  dead.  By  the  candle  still  burn¬ 
ing  they  saw  him,  not  in  bed,  but  kneel¬ 
ing  at  the  bedside,  with  his  head  buried 
in  his  hands  upon  the  pillow.  The  sad, 
yet  not  unexpected  truth,  soon  became 
evident;  he  had  passed  away  on  the  fur¬ 
thest  of  all  his  journeys,  and  without  a  sin¬ 
gle  attendant.  But  he  died  in  the  act  of 
prayer — prayer  offered  in  that  reverential 
attitude  about  which  he  was  always  so  par¬ 
ticular — commending  his  own  spirit,  wfith  all 
his  dear  ones,  as  was  his  wont,  into  the 
hands  of  his  Savior,  and  commending 
Africa — his  own  dear  Africa — with  all  her 
woes  and  sins  and  wrongs,  to  the  Avenger 
of  the  oppressed  and  the  Redeemer  of  the 
lost.” 

So, 

He  climbed  the  steep  ascent  of  heaven, 

Through  peril,  toil,  and  pain  ; 

O  God !  to  us  may  grace  be  given 
To  follow  in  his  train. 

As  he  prayed,  so  also  may  we !  Do  not 
his  missionary  successors  in  all  lands  have 
a  right  to  expect  of  us  such  prayer  as  he 
relied  upon  to  sustain  him? 


